The Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness is the second largest wilderness preserve in the lower 48 states. (Death Valley Wilderness in California is the biggest.)
The Main and Middle Forks of the Salmon (the River of No Return for which this wilderness area is named) have carved a canyon here that is 6,300 feet from the river bottom. That is deeper than the Grand Canyon.
It was named for Senator Frank Church, who played a key role in helping to get the Wilderness Act of 1964 passed.
There are 296 maintained trails (approximately 2,616 miles of trail). There are 114 bridges over streams and rivers, 32 Forest Service Roads, 66 trailheads, and still there are 1.5 million trail-free acres. It is administered jointly by the Forest Service and BLM and hosts campers, hikers, packers, fishers, hunters, horsepackers, backpackers, skiers, picnickers, and day-trippers. The picture above is the statue in front of the Sacagawea Inerpretive Center located here.
It is a dry country with as little as 10 inches of rainfall per year near the rivers, but as much as 50 inches of snow on the mountains. The Wilderness hosts eight big game animals and hundreds of other species.I'm not much of a camper, but it sure looks gorgeous.
I've never visited central Idaho - just traveled or lived along the fringes. It looks like a totally different place, yet I can believe that it is just a different part of my home state. Awesome pictures, though one wonders, if it is the River of No Return, how did the pictures come about? Must be a Pirates/Black Pearl "If there are no survivors, where do the stories come from I wonda?" sort of phenomenon.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, not that you need to because your chosen sites are very interesting and never fail to broaden my horizons, but if you are still taking requests, I would be keen to see more of central Europe, the UK and the south Pacific. Keep up the sweet blog. You are truly one of the most interesting people I know (and I mean that in a good way!)
Request noted. Good timing since I only have two more places planned (one of which is in the South Pacific). As far as me being even faintly interesting...you need to get out more.
ReplyDelete"Randomus" read this to me and I commented in my head but not here. First of all "Payette" National Forest? "Payette?" I don't find that interesting at all! Ha ha. Okay, but seriously - you know this one doesn't HAVE to be VIRTUAL - if I came to visit you so that you could come to visit me - we could actually GO here. Although, we would NOT and I repeat NOT! camp. No camping. no. bad camping. So... I'll sell one or two of our houses, get a plane ticket, come out and visit you, bring you back and when we are stuffed full of all the good food possible - we will do this trip. I've actually been in this area but only as a child - I have NO memory of it... so it would be new for both of us!
ReplyDeleteLastly, that you and Randmos both hang out with me suggests neither one of you know the first thing about even faintly interesting and while you SHOULD get out more, I hope you don't because then I would be alone!